EIA revises wood, waste biomass forecasts in monthly report

The U.S. Energy Information Administration slightly revised its forecast for energy production from wood and waste biomass in the February issue of its Short-Term Energy Outlook.

The EIA predicts that across all sectors, wood biomass will be used to generate 119,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity per day in 2014, increasing to 122,000 MWh per day next year. These estimates are down slightly from the 120,000 MWh per day in 2014 and 123,000 MWh per day for 2015 forecast in the January STEO.

The EIA has maintained its forecast that waste biomass will be used to generate 56,000 MWh per day of electricity across all sectors this year, and increased its forecast from 56,000 MWh per day to 57,000 MWh per day for 2015.

The electric power sector is currently expected to consume 0.259 quadrillion Btu (quad) of wood biomass in 2014 and .27 quad in 2015. The sector is also forecasted to consume 0.266 quad of waste biomass this year, increasing to 0.267 quad next year.

The EIA projects the industrial sector will consume 1.247 quad of wood biomass this year, increasing to 1.259 quad next year. The sector will also consume an estimated 0.175 quad of waste biomass in 2014 and 0.178 quad of waste biomass in 2015.

The commercial sector is expected to consume 0.067 quad of wood biomass in 2014, increasing to 0.069 quad in 2015. The sector will also consume an estimated 0.046 quad of waste biomass this year and 0.047 quad of waste biomass next year.

According to the EIA, the residential sector is expected to consume 0.414 quad of wood biomass this year, dropping to 0.407 next year.

Across all sectors, the EIA has forecasted the consumption of 1.987 quad of wood biomass and 0.487 quad of waste biomass this year, increasing to 2.006 quad of wood biomass and 0.492 quad of waste biomass next year.

The EIA has maintained its forecast for the number of households expected to use wood as a primary heating fuel during the 2013-’14 winter at 2.648 million, a 2.5 percent increase over the previous winter.